The Writing Prompt Boot Camp

How to Write a Mystery, Writing Thrillers

Trying your hand at writing thrillers – the most exciting and suspenseful of all genres? Look no further for guidelines on crafting a compelling plot, creating incredible characters, constructing an airtight mystery, and much more.

Ken McBeath's "The Fish Ivory Man" took first place in the Mystery/Crime category of the 2008 Writer's Digest Popular Fiction Awards. To read the grand-prize winning entry and other first-place finishers, click here.

Richard Mazziotti's "Brother's Keeper" took first place in the Suspense/Thriller category of the 2008 Writer's Digest Popular Fiction Awards. To read the grand-prize winning entry and other first-place finishers, click here.

Each year International Thriller Writers lines up some of the biggest names in publishing for four days of learning, networking and pitching in New York City. ThrillerFest 2008 actually consists of three events. At ThrillerFest, avid thriller readers and writers can mingle with their favorite New York Times-bestselling authors, including James Patterson, Sandra Brown,...

If you want to write a good sentence, don’t pay any attention to your grammar. I don’t mean “a sentence this like OK is.” I mean don’t automatically think you’ve written a good sentence just because it’s grammatically correct. Lots of bad sentences are grammatically correct....

Dean Koontz has kept a lot of people turning a lot of pages. How? Most would respond that his plots, characters and storytelling all contribute, and indeed they do. But a fourth element keeps those pages turning, an element all writers can learn from. Koontz explains to interviewer Brad Crawford about the power of...

Award-winning author Orson Scott Card explains in depth the techniques of inventing, developing, and presenting characters and of handling viewpoint in novels and short stories. Here are some general thoughts all writers can benefit from.

"In large measure, you do this work because you need to do it ... you're inventing material that makes your experience somehow both accessible to you and reasonable to you so that you understand where you have been in your life."

Author of The Writer''s Guide to Character TraitsProfessional psychologist and author, Dr. Linda Edelstein, speaks about the uses of psychology in current fiction and how writers build the characters we read-- From criminals to cult members and everyone else in between.

"I really feel that the only way you can sell something is to keep it out there. Every time I sent something out, when it came back rejected, I'd immediately send it again. I think of it like I do war shipsif you keep a war ship in port, you're not improving it. It...

In this exclusive interview, Ridley Pearson, The New York Times best-selling author of 13 novels explains that well-conducted research into the kinds of characters you are writing is essential for writers.

Ah, timethe most precious resource writers have, yet the easiest to squander. Freelancer Deborah J. Myers Post offers ways to give yourself more time for writing by making the most of your research time. Here are three simple steps that will help you save valuable research time.

UPCOMING BOOT CAMP

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